Explosion
by Only1ToniD
Summary: COMPLETE AU... think Buffy & Angel/scifi world/Highlander type AU... a TOTAL departure for me, but HEY, without change, we never grow, right?


**Author's Note:** _SO this one is a WAY AU/AR and TOTALLY sci-fi! BUT Jarly ends up together so I hope that makes it worth it to you! Anyway, this was inspired by a UCGH 1000-word challenge prompt (and the Buffy/Angel epic HOTNESS), but Jarly is a classic couple and I thought it more appropriate HERE! Hope you all like it!_

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**Explosion**

She panted as they circled each other, ever-vigilant for the opening that could end their final battle. One day in November 1999, she had destroyed the man she loved forever. She made the biggest mistake of her life in a moment of extreme weakness. It was a mistake that had allowed the evil to get into him and once it did, it took hold and grew until it swallowed him whole. Robena, Elizabeta, and Samanthea had wasted no time nurturing that insidious darkness and he was now their greatest weapon for evil. It broke her heart to know that her single moment of immense weakness on the cusp of their becoming had been his downfall. The Pixies of Corinthius never would have stood a chance against their love united, but now her truest love had become her greatest rival.

She barely ducked the swing of his staff and it glanced her shoulder rather than splitting her skull as had been his intention. She had learned to avoid his once-treasured gaze as it had acquired the power to sap her strength. She remembered when his eyes had been an intense, vibrant, warm turquoise-open and filled with his love for her. Now, however, they were had grown an ice blue so pale that they looked like milk with just the faintest hint of blue.

They matched the ice encasing his heart and soul.

She stabbed and sliced at him knowing there could only be one survivor of this battle that would decide the fate of the world. She was The Spencer-the world's most powerful warrior force for good. She was the sword and shield against evil, and he was evil's last line of defense, the protector of the Corinthius. While destroying him would break evil's back, it would also kill her final hope and shatter her battered soul.

But if he survived, it would mean she had failed and without her, the world would likely fall. She had hoped she could turn back the dark inside of him so that this moment would never come, but nothing she had planned had found success in breaking through the ice. She had destroyed Robena, Elizabeta, and Samanthea in their turn. Then, she watched and waited for it to free her love from their evils' clutches... but to no avail. Even after soaking their bodies in holy water, salting their graves, and setting the cleansing fire to their bones, he had not been freed. It appeared only the destruction of the Corinthius would save him, but she feared it would come too late. She had attempted taking on that last bastion of evil, Graystone, many times since that fateful night, but always it was her love that stood between her and ultimate success. Her only choices then had been to stay and die or retreat.

The possibility had loomed that she would have to kill her soulmate to succeed, a truth she could not accept then. Now, she knew her time was up... as was his.

The only option left to her now was to destroy her beloved and save the world... or die trying. Her heart burned with that knowledge, but she could not fail. She fought with renewed fervor and prayed he would be freed in death that they might be reunited some day. Her muscles grew sore, but she saw him weakening, faltering and growing more hesitant in his attacks. She had to fight to keep the conflagration of impending joy and despair of her imminent success at bay so she would not lose focus.

She landed a spinning kick to his solar plexus followed quickly by a combination back tuck and kick to his unprotected jaw. She barely had time to catch her breath when she saw the evil wink of dimples that heralded the arrival of the Corinthius. Seconds later, as he launched the Staff of Destruction, a sudden desperate realization hit.

_'He's willing to sacrifice the Morgan, his lieutenant, to end me!'_, she thought to herself.

She lunged for the staff, knowing their only hope for survival would be to return it before its magic detonated. But as her hand gripped the staff, she was distracted by the Morgan's grip on hers. Their eyes met and she was taken aback by the sight that greeted her. Rivulets of turquoise and cerulean bleeding through the ice of his irises like a marsh preparing to flood.

_'Could it be_?' she wondered, desperately afraid to hope.

A pulse of magic signalled their impending doom and warned her that she'd lost her chance in her distraction. She was determined that if these were to be her last moments on this plane of existence with him, she woul hold nothing back.

"I love you, Jay, Son of the Miners' Quarter, the one true Morgan," she yelled over the howl of magic. "Then, now, and always... in all worlds and times... in this life or the next. You are my one. And I am ALWAYS, in ALL WAYS, be yours."

His irises had been slowly filling like a cup long empty with that entrancing blue of perfect summer sky. Her words seem to release him from the evil that held him with a final snap, so that finally her man, her Morgan, looked back from those beloved eyes.

"Cara of Lee?" he gasped in confusion and need before his mouth met hers in a kiss that worlds were built on, just as the staff power exploded between them.

For a moment, there was a beautiful white light that blinded all for miles around. Then suddenly, the light was gone. And standng there in their wedding garb stood the Spencer and the Morgan handfasted and clasp the most beautiful pearlescent staff.

Silence reigned as the Spencer began to speak. "We have been made as one by the Gods. The Staff of Destruction is now the Spear of Unity," she called. "For what can a thing of destruction do in the face the indestructible, but accept failure and be remade. We shall eliminate the final evil from this land so that the healing can begin. So rejoice and prepare for a new day for our lands and pass on the message you have heard this day to all you meet."

As she finished, the Corinthius slunk up behind the Spencer-intending to again take advantage of her perceived weakness-but the Morgan was not fooled and, having learned the greatest weakness of the Corinthius as his right hand, caught him by his throat and snapped his feeble neck. A cheer of joy and love came from the gathered warriors and townspeople as they prepared to share the news and celebrate their freedom. But the Spencer and the Morgan had eyes only for each other and went on to have a blessed, joyous life full of family and love.

**THE END**


End file.
